Can This Really Happen in America?

Posted on 07/13/2011 by Paul Pavao

Last night I went to a Bible study. Most of the people I’d never talked to before. The topic was faith and works. Everyone agreed with me.

It wasn’t a dream.

I couldn’t believe it was happening. I’m somewhat scared to mention that they were all Baptists because maybe their church isn’t supposed to find out! I’d hate to expose them!

They were Bible believers, only they were reading and talking about the parts people really don’t want to discuss. Here’s some things they said:

  • People get offended and don’t even want to discuss whether Genesis 1 might not be literal, but they’re constantly explaining Jesus’ words away by interpreting them figuratively. (“He really didn’t mean that.”)
  • When Jesus said we need to cut things off if they cause us to sin, or when he said to forsake all our possessions, those are the places we need a more literal interpretation.
  • “Faith alone” is the ultimate American doctrine, but as far as I can tell, the only place it occurs in the Bible is James 2:24, where it says “not by faith alone.”

At one point, I said to them, “So, you’ve already embraced the modern heresy that James meant what he said, and tonight we’re just working on reconciling all the things the Bible says about faith and works?”

They all nodded like that was a perfectly normal thing to hear at a Bible study, especially one consisting mostly of Baptists.

Now, keep in mind that my blood cell counts are half what they’re supposed to be. They’re so low that I’m going in to get two pints of blood at the hospital in 40 minutes. I can’t rule out the possibility that I hallucinated all this.

Gideon went along, though, and my wife seems to know I went to a Bible study.

By the way, beyond finding fellow heretics, I found men that deeply loved God, and in the midst of all the discussion of faith and works was a humble pursuit of how to better please God through faith and an exuberant praise for the mercy and power of the Lord Jesus.

It was so good that it’s just hard to believe it even happened.

The Impossible Part

I mentioned that my blood counts are low enough to need a transfusion. Sitting up for an hour and a half, unless I’m in a recliner, is exhausting. I walk around really, really slow so that I don’t get light-headed and my forearms and legs don’t burn from the effort.

Last night, though, I participated in robust, excited conversation for two hours, and when I was done I was full of energy. I had more energy than before I went in.

I’m the one living in this body. I can tell you that’s simply impossible. Mere enjoyment could never produce that.

Now impossible I don’t have any problems believing. Things just work right when God’s presence comes. I remember a diabetic missionary who used to remark that whenever we came to visit him he never needed insulin. He would check his sugar levels, and they were always good, even when we visited for several days.

I walked out of that Bible study wondering if I still really needed the transfusion.

(Um, this morning, it feels like I need a transfusion, though I still feel better than I did yesterday.)

Ok, gotta go.

Posted in Leukemia, Miscellaneous, Modern Doctrines | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

My Leukemia Blog

Posted on 07/11/2011 by Paul Pavao

This really isn’t meant to be a leukemia blog, so I started a new one called Thrilled to Death. It’s sort of an online journal, so I’ll be talking about the whole process and what I’m going through there.

I have no way of knowing what that will be like. I’ve never had leukemia before.

I’m scheduling this blog for July 11, though it’ s only the 1st. I already have other blogs scheduled until then. Quick fatigue and the possibility of going into the hospital for weeks at any time has forced me to eliminate a lot of my responsibilities, so I have time on my hands do what I love to do: research, learn, and write!

One more blessing of this wonderful gift!

So, back to the Rest of the Old, Old Story on July 13, and if you only care to (or have time to) read what I have to say about leukemia, and not the faith once for all delivered to the saints, then you can switch to the other blog and be delivered from this one!

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Leukemia: Humbled To Be Found Worthy

Posted on 07/09/2011 by Paul Pavao

This post won’t go up until July 9. By then I should be in the hospital, just finishing chemo, with no bone marrow and no immune system, and starting a 4-6 week recovery.

My 50th birthday is July 11. Happy birthday!

Tonight, though, June 29, I’m sitting in an RV, and except for the miracle of modern medicine, I’d be dying very rapidly. I may still die, I suppose, though I believe God has told me that’s not the end of this leukemia path for me.

Still, I think about death and eternal life. Even though I know it’s happened to thousands and millions of people, it still amazes me how our lives can go on and on for decades, seemingly so stable and normal, and then death quite suddenly shoves its way in.

So now I have this dread disease. Cancer.gov refers to it as “highly responsive, but usually fatal.” The time frame is usually under two years. At that point, you’re cured or dead.

I don’t want to die.

I don’t mean die on this earth. Everyone’s going to physically die. No sense worrying about that.

I mean I don’t want death to be the end. I want to live forever. The thought of disappearing into blackness is scary to me, and that thought, on occasions in my life, even as a Christian, has really shaken me.

And now, here I am, with a lot of reasons to think about death, and God is so close.

Today, it’s no problem to picture disappearing into the light of God because I’m already there. Today, it’s no problem believing Jesus’ promise of eternal life.

In fact, today, it’s no problem believing that the issue of life after death won’t be an issue for me for at least 20 years or so, even though doctors are going to wipe out my bone marrow and immune system next week.

Why should I be so unworried? Why should this time be the time for me to have the most peace I’ve ever had?

For the same reason those Vietnam POW’s gave thanks to God when they were released.

Because God is real, and his Gospel is real.

And so I sit thankful. I have been given this incredible peace, and such a wonderful opportunity to talk about it.

All because God thinks I can handle having leukemia dumped on me.

I feel honored, and I feel humbled.

I remember making rank once in the military after I refused to study for my test, choosing instead to devote myself to the study of God’s Word. The test scores required to make rank that cycle were lower than any before or after for several years.

I cried on my bed when I was told.

The rank didn’t matter that much to me, but that God would give me such a gift was overwhelming.

You can pray for me. You can think I’m strong. You can think I’m a good Christian, but I’m really not a very good Christian. I can give you lists of people who have lived lives of constant self-denial, while I’ve spent too much time in restaurants, occasionally failed to “get around” to giving, and simply indulged at times when I should have denied myself.

Can I really claim to have “buffeted” my body as Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 9:27?

I doubt it, unless you apply the modern term “buffet,” as in a really indulgent restaurant, to the verse, which really isn’t a very funny joke.

People like Mother Theresa cause my conscience to be stricken. Amy Carmichael once wrote a book called If. I couldn’t read it. I’m in the church now, which has done some very positive work on my weak will, so now I can at least read it. Though it convicts me, I can see where God has moved me forward in things that book talks about.

I’ve traveled, and I’ve met foreign missionaries who have hung out all night in jungles being eaten by mosquitoes, then swam a dangerous river towing bible wrapped in plastic, all to bring the Gospel to those who don’t have it. Me? I’m a self-indulgent, wealthy American. Such men make me wonder whether I qualify as a Christian.

May God have mercy on me.

Only I don’t have to say “may.” God has already had mercy on me. He’s let me feel the process of dying, and he’s held my hand and told me he’s with me.

If leukemia kills me, the only thing that will matter is the terrible hurt that will cause my family. May God allow me to teach my children to trust God the way that he is teaching me to trust him. There is nothing like walking in the Spirit.

For me, though, all I can think is the wonderful kindness of being shown eternal life by God because leukemia is destroying my blood.

Why is this happening to me? Why is God allowing me, of all people, to bear this, to experience such wonderful assurances? Why is he choosing me, of all people, to get to carry this disease and talk about the power of Jesus Christ, who never leaves us nor forsakes us?

I do know why. I’m not a very good Christian, but I am a Christian. I am a man of faith, and I have chose to learn from Jesus.

It’s far better to be a lousy disciple than a non-disciple.

Don’t fool yourself, though. To get the blessings, you do have to make a choice to enroll in his school, to choose his ways, and to give up what you want.

Yeah, I know. It’s a terrible price. Your dreams of being a pilot, your college, your exercise, your business, and even your parents, siblings, wife, and children, all don’t mean much to him except as they are put in his service.

Of course, he made them all. I suppose that gives him a right to them.

Personally, it’s a price that today I regret less than ever.

Posted in Holiness, Leukemia, Miscellaneous | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

The Attack of the Cloned Mutant Giants

Posted on 07/07/2011 by Paul Pavao

Note: This post ignores all the questions about what the body of Christ is. This applies whether you’re including everyone who claims to be Christian and all churches that claim to be churches or not.

Further note: While most of the details of this post are still accurate, I actually have Blastic Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cell Neoplasm (that link’s to my explanation of the disease), a particularly rare and aggressive lymphoma.

I’ve got a larger army of immune cells than you do. In fact, I probably have almost double the amount of those microscopic disease-destroying cells than you do.

And my cells are bigger than your cells.

What an army!

They’re killing me.

Those large cells are useless against the viruses they’re supposed to be fighting. They look impressive, so large and out in such intimidating numbers. But they have a couple of big problems.

They’re from the wrong source. My lymphocytes, the virus-fighting cells of the immune system, are all clones of one another. They did not come from the proper source, being made anew by my bone marrow. They have gotten their DNA–their programming and their growth–from one rogue cell, and they just march on … unchanged and unchanging.

They’re useless against the real enemies. Because they’re abnormal, they can’t recognize or kill viruses. They just tour my blood stream, looking impressive.

They’re crowding out everything else. These cells don’t like other cells being around. Neutrophils are smaller cells that fight bacteria. My blood has antibodies to destroy neutrophils. Apparently, only viruses are the real enemy now, and my white blood cell army only pretends to fight those.

Platelets are blood cells that thicken blood and join together to stop bleeding. My blood has antibodies that kill platelets. But what’s probably worst of all, that army of massive, mutant lymphocytes is crowding out the only cells that can really give life: the red blood cells. I have only 70% as many as I had 9 months ago when I was healthy.

The Body of Christ

This post isn’t about me. My problems are sent from God to open doors for ministry and to help me live by the only real life there is, that spiritual life from God which is fed to us by the blood of Jesus Christ.

But there are so many accurate analogies between my body and the body of Christ that it’s not funny. In fact, it’s scary.

Currently, the body of Christ has lots of people running around defending it. They’re large, and they are numerous. Their targets include works in any form as part of the Gospel, anything that doesn’t come from the Bible (and, in fact, anything which doesn’t come from their interpretation of the Bible), evolution and anything else they don’t agree with from science (like the earth going around the sun?), and homosexual marriage among non-Christians.

Their power is to defend a system that provides weekly speeches by professionals, a mix of professional and amateur musicians to lead singing, and a school with a few teaching positions for particularly gifted laymen. By and large, though, it’s a very small percentage of Christians that have an active role, or even an opportunity for an active role, in the system we have today.

So why does a system that is so clearly unscriptural and ineffective survive and thrive from year to year, decade to decade, and generation to generation?

Because the multitude of giant but mutant defenders of the faith are too busy opposing the works that Paul said Christians must maintain (Tit. 3:8), that Jesus died for (Tit. 2:13-14), and that James said are required for salvation (Jam. 2:14-26) to take on the real enemies of the faith.

In the meantime, the voices of true defenders of the faith are drowned out by the multitude of shouts of the cloned mutant giants. With warnings and threats, they have raised up an army of passive, ignorant, and superstitious Christians functioning as antibodies to drive out all other disease-fighting parts of the body of Christ.

The ability to fight invaders, the ability to stop the bleeding, the recognition of the real enemies, and, above all, the flow of life from the real blood of Christ are stifled.

We’re killing ourselves, led by the multitude of cloned mutant giants.

A Brief Addition on the Blood of Christ

The real blood of Christ is life-giving!

Let me tell you about the incredible difference between having life-giving red blood cells coursing through your veins and having those same cells crowded out by mutant, giant, cloned, and ineffective white blood cells, possessing no life in themselves.

In 2006, I ran a 31-mile course on a small mountain near Huntsville, AL. One of the loops, which we ran (well, mostly walked; it was littered with big rocks covered by leaves) 3 times, had a steep hill at the end of it. I ran up it the first time, but by the 3rd time around, I was happy to walk the quarter-mile or so, breathing hard at the top, loving the feel of the mountain air, and feeling alive with the trees around me.

When I got home my legs were so sore that I stopped in front of the porch to plan how to get up the two steps so I could go in the house.

But I was charged with energy; thrilled with my success; delighted with life.

I’m living in an RV right now, and without running any miles, some days I breathe hard after I climb its two steps to get inside. My legs aren’t sore, so I don’t have to plan how to climb those steps. My energy wanes regularly, and I’m thrilled with life only because I choose to be.

Friends, that’s what traditional Christianity is doing to you!!!

Can you understand that’s why John says that if you don’t keep Christ’s commands, you don’t know God?! (1 Jn. 2:3-4).

John was angry at "those who are trying to seduce you" (1 Jn. 2:27) because they were robbing the people of God of life. They were teaching the people of God to fight the wrong things.

Seeing the Problem

You can’t see my disease. If you walked in my office to see me doing barbell rows (yeah, I keep a barbell in my office) or to see me on the floor doing twists to keep my back from going out, you would think I was a normal, healthy individual.

Well, okay, you probably wouldn’t think I was normal.

It’s not until you ask me to function that you’d see something was wrong. I wouldn’t be able to keep up with you in a soccer game. If we work on a carpentry project all morning, it wouldn’t take long for you to notice that I’m resting a lot and that I don’t look right.

It’s starting to show in other ways, too. I’m growing my third plum-covered bump on my torso as of yesterday. That’s the product of my body attacking itself, my immune system doing damage to perfectly good tissue.

Are you catching the analogy?

Have you seen the plum-colored bumps on the body of Christ? Have you seen those clusters of damaged people, beat up and rejected by an immune system run wild and led by the cloned mutant giants?

The mutant giants want you to pay attention to all the good flesh. The parts of the body they have not yet damaged.

That’s as stupid as my pointing out that I can still walk many miles as long as I don’t get too fast while ignoring the massive drop in energy and endurance I’ve experienced. That’s as stupid as my ignoring an inch-and-a-half wide raised purple bump on my back and the two that have come after it. (I have to be honest and admit I ignored the bumps for weeks until the drop in energy became obvious and a friend ordered me to go to the doctor.)

Leukemia’s an excellent picture of what’s happening to the body of Christ.

Correcting the Problem

Thank you to the West Clinic in Corinth, MS and to the men and women who have devoted their lives to healing people like me.

But who’s devoted their life to healing the body of Christ? And are they gathered together in one clinic, reviewing each other’s work, and helping each other to work toward one common goal? Do they know what that goal is?

The people who are fighting Leukemia are studying. They’re researching. They’re learning all the time. They’re looking at the problem and discussing it.

But before they ever began, they made sure they knew how a healthy body is supposed to work, at least as well as humanly possible. They went to college, and they got in a degree in some medical field.

But Christians can’t just go to college. Too many Bible colleges have studied the modern body, riddled with diseases. They don’t know what a healthy body is like.

Am I being judgmental?

I don’t think so. I think it’s bizarre that we would read that the early Christians devoted themselves every day to the apostles teaching, to the breaking of bread and to fellowship, and that we would ignore the fact that we don’t even encourage daily fellowship.

I think it’s bizarre that the book of Acts would say that the early Christians had all things in common, and that we would claim that was only in Jerusalem without doing any research to see if that’s so.

I think it’s bizarre that the earliest church manual in existence says we ought to seek out the faces of the saints every day and be prepared to share everything with them, and we would act like tithing (Of all the laws that we could drag into the church from the Old Testament, why that one?) at a weekly speech to support a professional staff and a building is the same thing. Good grief, that’s morally reprehensible.

I think it’s bizarre that Justin in the mid-2nd century could talk about living familiarly with one another and Tertullian in the early-3rd century could talk about sharing everything except our wives, and that we would ignore what was obviously the normal Christian life of the 1st and 2nd centuries.

We’re diseased, friends!

No wonder we marvel at John’s statement that those who are born of God do not sin. We rightly point out that the Greek of that verse means something to the effect of “continually sin,” but that doesn’t change the fact that, really, we don’t understand the grace that takes away sin’s power any more than I can understand the endurance that would have allowed me to run the 10K I was scheduled to run with my secretary.

Help! Is there a doctor in the house?

Posted in Church, History, Holiness, Miscellaneous | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Tithing, the New Testament Church, and Hucksters

Posted on 07/05/2011 by Paul Pavao

I’ve always had a problem with tithing because it’s the only Old Testament law that fundamentalists want to push on their members.

Or so I thought.

Today, I read a blog, which I’ll link in a moment, that gave me a better reason why tithing has always bothered me.

First, though, let me say that rejecting tithing on a Scriptural basis has always been easy. The arguments that Christians should tithe are so pitiful that they are hardly worth refuting. The same people who reject the Sermon on the Mount as part of the law will argue that Christians ought to tithe because tithing is mentioned in the Gospels.

Ridiculous. And shameful. Money lovers.

What I enjoy doing is sending those people to Deut. 14:22-29. Yes, let’s tithe, but let’s do it according to the only thorough description of tithing that’s in the Bible.

Here’s a quote from THE BIBLE about what to do with your tithe:

thou shalt bestow that money for whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatsoever thy soul desireth: and thou shalt eat there before the LORD thy God, and thou shalt rejoice, thou, and thine household … (Deut. 14:26)

That’s the good ol’ KJV. The next verse adds that you need to have the Levites with you.

So, you can take the pastor down to Buffalo Wild Wings with your family for beer and wings, but you don’t have to give him that tithe!

Note: That’s a joke. While I don’t object to Christians drinking alcohol, and I occasionally take the family to Buffalo Wild Wings (where I will also usually order one beer), we’re not to indulge the flesh or love the world. For the most part, there are a lot better things to do with our money.

Okay, that said, this blog (that’s the correct link, just read down a little) expresses my real problem with tithing better than I’ve ever been able to express it to myself. It’s the opposite of Robin Hood! It’s the rich taking from the poor! We’re no better than John Tetzel!

Posted in Modern Doctrines | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Keeping Track of Miracles

Posted on 07/03/2011 by Paul Pavao

Because of the sorts of things I do online, I end up running across atheist arguments or in debates with atheists, at least occasionally. It can be amazing how confident they are that Christians’ prayers don’t get answered.

I’m so used to answered prayer and to small miracles, that I find it impossible to keep track. My memory is such that recalling such things can be hard, unless it’s really amazing stuff like praying for my nephew’s eyes.

There’s a pretty awesome story that a dear friend and mentor put on his blog.

That was from a previous trip to Africa. On this current trip to Kenya, he had one of those awesome experiences that are not really all that rare. He writes:

As most of you well know, every time I come to Africa there is a great fight for my mind. Discouraging thoughts, oppressive feelings are always there to meet me in abundance. This time before I came I asked God for help that I might overcome these formidable attacks before they got a hold on me.

Those of us who know him know how he can struggle with discouragement.

This time, though …

I went to my computer and found this email from a man I met for 2 minutes in Africa 5 or 6 years ago in India.

That’s from an email. He gives the man’s name later in the email, and it’s an Indian name. I have no idea what the “in Africa” part is there for, as Noah wasn’t in Africa 5 years ago, just India. Also, the man’s email, which Noah forwarded to me, says he met Noah in India. I suspect the “in Africa” is a typo. I haven’t asked Noah because he’s in Africa.

Anyway, Noah explains what this email was like:

As I began reading this letter it was as if this man had been in my head reading my mind. He addressed every discouraging specter in my head. I was ecstatic! I could not believe this was happening. A brother I barely knew in a distant country was awakened by God in the middle of the night to let me know that God saw me and had arisen to come to my aid. I don’t even know if he knew I was in Africa.

The email to Noah is written like this:

I woke up in prayers this morning and when i was praying the lord was dealing with my life,it was deep in the spirit that you cant imargin,i saw the heavens opened and when i bowed down he remindend me you,i saw you in a deep cloud of wondering,you were in africa,i dont know if you are doing anything there!am not going to any church!is like you are in africa now,the lord has sent you there with your wife and your seeying that whet is a head is imposible!remove doughts in you! he is able to acomplish,he is with you in that mission,BE STILL,THE LORD IS WITH YOU!

You can read the whole thing at Noah’s blog. (Just press on past the suitcase story, but also follow his blog! That’s something you won’t regret.)

Having traveled to Africa with Noah two or three times, I recognize how perfect that email was.

Just a reminder that we are not alone. There’s good reasons for believing in God, and living the Christian life is a not a fantasy. It’s a powerful life. It doesn’t matter whether we can explain it if we can walk in it.

For the kingdom of God does not consist of words, but of power. (1 Cor. 4:20)

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Apostles and AI Wits

Posted on 07/01/2011 by Paul Pavao

Today I read the following on Facebook:

Apostles are those sent ones who had seen the risen Christ. If one has not seen the risen Christ they are not Apostles.

Ignoring the grammar mistakes, let me complain about a real problem in supposedly Bible-believing churches. (I say “supposedly” because I see more that’s-what-we’ve-always-believed-believing than Bible-believing going on in those churches.)

The belief in the above quote comes from Acts 1:21-22, where Peter is leading the eleven apostles in picking a successor for Judas, who, as you know, had committed suicide. Peter says that the replacement for Judas needs to be someone who had been with them the whole time they’d been with Jesus, from the baptism of John to the day he was taken up into heaven. And that person would be a witness with them of the resurrection.

So, does that mean that for anyone to be called an apostle, he must have seen the risen Christ?

Possibly.

If you know that Barnabas and Paul are called apostles (Acts 14:14), and are thus aware that the 12 were not the only apostles, then it only takes a moment’s thought to realize that there’s more than one interpretation of Acts 1:21-22. It might mean that anyone who is called an apostle has to have seen the risen Lord, but it also might mean that the twelve, being a special group of people, can only include people who had been with Christ from the beginning to the end.

In fact, why the focus on seeing Christ risen? Doesn’t Acts 1:21-22 give a much greater requirement than that, a requirement that even the apostle Paul does not meet? Doesn’t it say that the replacement for Judas must have been with Christ from the baptism of John to the ascension?

Nonetheless, this person on Facebook gives his opinion about apostles as though it carries some sort of divine authority.

He’s not the only one, of course. It’s my experience that most Protestants don’t believe there are apostles today, and the reason they give is that an apostle must have seen the risen Lord.

Why do they believe this?

Because that’s what they were told.

What I said above is undoubtedly true. There are at least two interpretations of Acts 1:21-22, and there is nothing to indicate the common Protestant belief is a likely interpretation.

Nonetheless, if you point that out, those Protestants who believe apostles must have seen the risen Lord will argue vehemently that they are standing on Scripture. Of course, they’re not standing on Scripture. They’re standing on tradition, and it’s not even an ancient tradition. It belongs only to the Protestants, so it’s less than 500 years old.

Roman Catholics and Orthodox would argue that the apostolic office was passed on to the bishops in the churches. Their authority went from apostle to bishop to the next bishop, etc. They call it apostolic succession.

While I believe that both the Roman Catholics and Orthodox lost their apostolic succession long ago, their argument is based on a justifiable, ancient tradition, that can honestly be argued to have come from the apostles.

The Protestant tradition is just someone’s possible, but not likely, interpretation of Scripture that’s spread around the Protestant churches by word of mouth.

AI Wits

I want to coin a new term: AI Wits.

That sounds like a nice name, right? AI usually stands for artificial intelligence, and wit indicates good reasoning skills.

But really, it’s short for Anything I Want Is True.

It seems to be the approach that most “Bible-believers” have to believing the Bible. If it can possibly, by any stretch of the imagination or twist of a word, be interpreted in the way I want it to be interpreted, then it must be so.

I’m not picking on a specific group of people, by the way. I’m talking about me and you. If we don’t work at learning from God, we’re going to learn from what we prefer.

By the way, when you start learning from God, expect to be grilled a lot by your peers.

It even happened to Peter (Acts 11:1ff).

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On Leukemia and the Grace of God: A Short Comment

Posted on 06/29/2011 by Paul Pavao

From a note to my aunt:

God’s really given me grace for this, and he’s even given my wife and kids grace. The problem is, he’s not giving all my relatives grace, and I’m finding I have to share the comfort he’s pouring out on us.

It’s truly “amazing grace,” as miraculous as anything I’ve ever seen.

One of the things that brought me to Christ was seeing the movie, "In the Presence of Mine Enemies."

When all those people who had been POW’s, tortured for years, came out and fell on their knees and gave thanks to God, I was angry. Why would they thank the God that had allowed such terrible suffering? All I could conclude was that God must have been present with them during their suffering, and that’s why none lost their faith.

Now I understand.

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Yippee! I Have Leukemia!

Posted on 06/28/2011 by Paul Pavao

As I write this on June 25, I only have a preliminary diagnosis from my family doctor of Leukemia. It’s Saturday, and I have an appointment with the cancer center in Corinth, MS on Monday to confirm the diagnosis and find out more.

I’m scheduling this post for June 28 so that my appointment would be passed and I’d know I really have Leukemia (June 27 note: I do). If they say I don’t, then I won’t let this run, and I have to admit, I’ll be really disappointed.

Here’s why.

Keep in mind in what follows that my family has much more to lose than I do. It’s easy for me to have a positive outlook. I am only in danger of a bit of suffering and possibly dying. My family’s in danger of losing a husband and father, and there’s really nothing to compare to that kind of sorrow except losing a child. They’re handling it as well as me, which is very impressive.

First, when you’re a Christian and the purpose of your body is to glorify God, then there is really no difference between a clean bill of health and a diagnosis of leukemia. God is simply giving you the tools you need to do what you’re supposed to do with your body.

How could having leukemia be a good tool? In a myriad of ways.

The Pros and Cons of Contracting Leukemia as a Christian

I was weighing the pros and cons of having leukemia, and there some pretty significant pros:

  • The Scriptures say that Wisdom is the principle thing. Therefore, it says that "in all your getting, get understanding" (Prov. 4:7). Along those lines, the Psalmist prays, "Teach us to number our days, so that we may obtain a heart of wisdom" (Ps. 90:12). Leukemia is a quick way to number my days!
  • There’s people to see and talk to that I would never be able to talk to otherwise.
  • It should be easier to display faith in Christ to these people because they’re going to be expecting me to think something bad is happening to me.
  • In general, any statements that I make that God can be trusted in every situation will carry more authority than they would if everything was going well for me.
  • Living and dying are in the hands of our Father in heaven. Saints don’t die because they have leukemia. Saints die because it’s the will of God for them (Is. 57:1-2; Ps. 116:15).
  • I have a friend with cancer, and now I get to go through this with her … consoling others with the consolation I’ve received and all that.

The cons?

  • Distress on my family
  • I can barely exercise at all (I think God told me he didn’t like my obsession with exercise anyway)
  • There’s a real danger of focus on self: self-pity, loving the attention, or taking over conversations by bringing up leukemia

As you can see, the pros outweigh the cons by a lot except perhaps the distress on my family. But they’re trusting God really well, which is awesome.

So I’m excited to enter this new phase in my life.

Divine Healing

I believe in divine healing. I’ve seen it happen.

Unless God really speaks to you that I’m wrong, please don’t pray for me to be healed and possibly ruin this new ministry God has called me to.

You can pray for me to be healed in his time. I don’t think I’m supposed to die.

What God’s Been Saying to Me

If you’ve been reading my blog, then you know that I don’t write that God told me this or God told me that. I’ve heard God speak clearly in terms I felt comfortable repeating to others, but not often.

Except this week. From the day last week when I finally became convinced that there’s something badly wrong with my health and yesterday when the doctor told me a stress test was unnecessary because he could see the enlarged, abnormal lymphocytes in my blood smear (along with anemia and low platelets)—between then and now, I believe God has spoken several things to me pretty clearly:

  • I’m not going to die (real soon, anyway)
  • This is supposed to be happening to me
  • My attitude toward exercise has always been too positive
  • I’m supposed to eat healthy and heartily because my nutrition is more important than weight loss. (This was obviously correct now that I know the problem’s leukemia, but the direction from God came before I knew.)
  • If I want to lose weight, I’m allowed to exercise better self-control in the evening, but otherwise no dieting for weight loss.

I guess I’ve put myself and my Christianity on the spot here, huh? If I’m dead in a few months, whether from leukemia or from a car wreck, I’ll just be one more false prophet. I didn’t know what else to do but be honest and let you judge the success I’m experiencing following Christ.

By the way, I gave my brothers and sisters in the church an opportunity to tell me they didn’t bear witness to the things I think I heard from God. If they told me they disagreed, I wouldn’t have posted this.

So I guess it’s we and our Christianity that are on the spot.

The Grace of God and His Gifts

My family’s doing really well with all this. My attitude’s not just good, I’m thrilled! That’s purely the grace of God, and I want to give thanks.

By the way, don’t be jealous that it’s not you who gets to have leukemia and the ministry that goes with it. We each have our own gift, and yours matters as much as mine. I’m just expressing my zeal and gratefulness for the gift God has given me.

And perhaps correcting the mistaken impression that it’s not a gift.

By the way, I found out a friend of mine has a blog, and the first post I saw from him—just tonight!—is a writing by someone else who found their cancer to be a gift and a calling.

Posted in Miscellaneous | Tagged , , | 13 Comments

Roman Catholicism and the Bible

Posted on 06/27/2011 by Paul Pavao

The last post, dealing with the Nephilim of Genesis 6, ended up touching on both the creation story and on modern doctrines versus the early traditions of the church.

By the way, someone sent me a link free online translation of the Book of Enoch. I forgot to mention that I was not that impressed with the Book of Enoch. I do not want to add it to our Bible! But it does give a version of the Nephilim story and the origin of demons that’s in the New Testament and held to by the early Christians (previous post).

So, while we’re transitioning towards tradition, let’s discuss Roman Catholicism.

Warning: There’s nothing very nice about this post. It’s just honest without any real regard for the feelings of Roman Catholics. I make no apology for that. This is, after all, a blog, not a discussion in my living room.

I got a newsletter for the Christian history section of Christianity Today that included this article on Pope Benedict XIV. It begins:

By decree on this day June 13, 1757, Pope Benedict XIV said the nations could have the Bible in their own tongues.

Wow. 1757?

So, what do you reckon happened? The pope got a sudden revelation that after 1700 years God had changed his mind, and now it was okay for Catholics to read the Bible in their own language?

Of course not. What happened is that the Roman Catholic Church was finally losing to the Protestants badly enough that it had to give up some of its more egregious errors and offenses against humanity and against the teachings of the faith once for all delivered to the saints. (Quite similar to when the Latter Day Saints had a sudden revelation in the 1970’s that God had removed the curse from blacks, and now African-Americans could be priests.)

Let’s not forget that not only did the Roman Catholic Church burn people for giving the Scriptures to common people (e.g., John Huss, but there were many others). They even dug up John Wycliffe’s bones to burn them posthumously 12 years after he died.

Nothing against individual Roman Catholics. They’re the ones that I pray will be delivered from bondage to the magisterium and hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church (which is neither Scriptural nor an apostolic tradition).

But let’s face it. To suggest that an organization which has burned people to death for translating the Scriptures is the one, true commissioned church of Jesus is just nonsense.

Yes, they’ve utterly disqualified themselves forever over just that one centuries-long bit of tyranny. But don’t worry, if you need more before you join me in rejecting them, you can study a little medieval history and grow far more disgusted with the magisterium and hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church.

The Real Church

In Scripture, and in the earliest church fathers, the churches–it was usually plural in the 2nd century fathers, not singular–consisted of all the Christians in a local area, committed together as one family, sharing each other’s lives, that interacted in a network without any hierarchy above the local church.

That’s Biblical and traditional ecclesiology—if the tradition you’re concerned about is apostolic tradition.

If that’s offensive, too bad. They shouldn’t have murdered thousands or millions of people for trying to serve God and (of all things!) for giving out the Scriptures (free of charge!) to the common people.

Oh, wait. Let’s not forget what that hierarchy and magisterium did to the Muslims during the crusades.

No sense pretending. We might as well face what we have to face.

I don’t know what you’re looking for. I’m looking for that wonderful love and unity that marked the church in Acts 2:42-47. I believe God offers it, and the place it is found is in the local church, among Christians who have been taught to follow Christ according to the Scriptures and by the Spirit.

If it’s at all possible, read the next post, which is written and scheduled for Wednesday. It’s on a completely different topic, and it will certainly be among the most unusual posts you have ever read. If you’re on my personal mailing list, though, then you’ve already read it.
Posted in Church, History, Modern Doctrines, Roman Catholic & Orthodox | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments